McCaskey Products

pictures by Tammy Davis unless noted

The McCaskey Register Company manufactured products for small businesses around the world for approximately 50 years.  Their best known product was the McCaskey Credit Register, which was a hinged, multileaf accounting form and receipt holder, which was the hardware portion of the McCaskey System.  The "McCaskey System" was a combination of receipts and forms to make accounting simpler, which look much like the ledger books of today.  Many owners used this system to keep track of sales, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll etc.  Eventually other products were designed to work with this system.

The machine that you see to the right is a McCaskey 8-column mechanical listing adding machine, which we did not know existed until it was shown to us by Judy Bargides.  I myself have also aquired one of these, which seem to be pretty rare.    The serial number on the bottom is 126760 which is the McCaskey number; the machine may have another Victor assigned number on the inside.  Patent dates on the back of the machine are June 20,1919 and April 30,1920 with others pending.  Even though they had patents for all of their products, the McCaskey name was never trademarked.

photo right courtesy Judy Bargides

This cash register  was our second addition to our McCaskey family.  We purchased this machine at a flea market in our area from a gentleman who's father used it in his grocery store for as long as he could remember.  This register has a one piece body of Bakelite and has a slight brownish tinge to it.  The cash drawer is also of a one piece design and  Bakelite as well.  The drawer is opened by pulling down on the handle or by pressing a series of sales keys for ringing merchandise and then pulling the handle.  This style of McCaskey cash register did not have pop-up numbers, but instead printed the figures on printer rolls just like an adding machine, which of course it is.  The heart of the machine is actually a Victor adding machine. The McCaskey serial number is 23373 LD and the inside number which we think is a Victor serial number is 688703. This machine was the model X-6.

With this machine's top opened you can easily see the resemblance to an adding machine. The right key locks the drawer while the left key locks the lid.  You must open the lid in order to "total" or "z" out the machine for the day.

McCaskey held several patents for the mechanisms of this machine. To view information on these designs click the above McCaskey emblem.

This cash register was our first .  It is the McCaskey Service Station Cash Register.  This machine has an all metal body with a one piece plastic drawer.  These started being produced in 1939.  This cash register came with four keys.  The one in the upper front opens the lid, the one in the near top closes the amounts window so daily sales couldn't be seen by prying eyes, the one on the right side locks the drawer and the one in the front cannot be turned, so we are not sure what it does.  The keys have dollar amounts as well as rows of keys for different functions such as paid outs, received on acct., charge etc.  There are keys labeled for gas, parts, labor, t&t , lube, oil and acc.  There is another row of keys with letters on them to distinguish between cashiers.  This cash register will not open by simply pulling the handle; you must first enter a cashier letter before pulling the handle.  The McCaskey serial number for this machine is 108818 ER and the interior number (possibly by Victor) is 375090. This machine would be a model ER-7.

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To Machines pg. 2